We keep hearing that artificial intelligence will render most of us obsolete. And many creative people are legitimately worried that these tools can so easily make images that could destroy all artists’ livelihoods. I can see why. You type in a few words and get a picture in seconds. It’s pretty unsettling. Much of this fear is familiar. It happened 150 years ago when photography arrived as a radical new technology. In the late 1800s, realist painters had to adapt or perish. That’s when...
9 days ago • 3 min read
My tongue keeps finding the hole. It’s an instinct now, the way your fingers trace the edge of a page you’re not ready to turn. The stitches are small but stubborn, a little knot of string at the back of my mouth. Just last week, that space was home to a molar I’d carried around for sixty years — a subterranean king with tangled roots and a gold crown, reigning over the back corner of my jaw. Now it sits in a dish in my desk drawer, inert and exiled, while the inside of my cheek learns what...
16 days ago • 3 min read
The painters broke the blinds in our guest room. We still haven’t replaced them. The window faces east, and at dawn, the searing Arizonan sun laserbeams into the room. This is only an issue when we have guests, especially ones who’d rather not start sunbathing at 5:27 a.m. When Suzanne visited from New York last month, I used some clamps to hang a ratty old blanket over the window as a temporary measure. Jenny is in no rush to spend the money to replace it with something more permanent, but I...
23 days ago • 1 min read
I have always been a bit of a gearhead, not just because I love gizmos and doodads but because tools have changed my life. Let me tell you about a few of them. I'm going to skip over obvious things like sketchbooks, watercolor field kits, and Tombow Fudenosuke brush pens. Instead, I'll start with the Apple IIC. In January of 1984, Apple released the Mac, and the world changed forever. But Macs were priced like BMWs and way out of my reach as a young copywriter. However, four months later,...
30 days ago • 5 min read
Why do professional artists make art? I don’t mean in some big, existential way. I mean literally: why this piece, right now? Being an artist is a job. But it’s not a job with office hours or a boss breathing down your neck. Or is it? It’s easy to imagine otherwise. If you’re successful, you’ve got the fancy loft, the beach house, a handful of rail-thin assistants with eyebrow rings. You can roll out of bed, wander into the studio, scratch your butt, and make whatever’s on your mind. Pretty...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
A lot of creative people tell me they get roadblocked by procrastination. There are always so many other things to do. Creative projects slip to the back burner, and a voice in their heads keeps telling them they should be doing something else instead of developing their art. So, how do you stay on track and make the things you’ve dreamed about? Here’s what works for me. The fact is if I really want to do something, I find the time. I always find time to eat French fries. I never forget to...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
For thirty years, my job was to kick ass. I worked in advertising, which meant I was in a constant state of competition. Every meeting, every pitch, every campaign was about being the sharpest, the fastest, the most convincing voice in the room. I had to serve up hot ideas on demand, solve problems overnight, and make my work eclipse whatever and whoever came before. I was good at it. Good enough to win cash and prizes, and to stay in the ring for years. Once, I was hired to freelance for...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
I plan to read more literary novels. But sometimes I end up blowing through a cheesy thriller that I grabbed at the library. JJ buys kale to make healthy salads, and then we find ourselves eating frozen pizza on the couch. I add Kurosawa and Bergman movies to my Netflix list, but I also rewatch the same episode of Seinfeld for the fifth time because it makes me laugh, and I already know how it ends. I like to think I have standards. I know what "good" is, or at least I have some idea. But I’m...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Lately, I’ve been spending time with a new online tool called Cosmos. It’s a way to collect and curate visual inspiration—kind of like Pinterest, but without the ads, algorithms, and kitchen makeovers. What sets Cosmos apart is its focus: it’s filled with images curated by designers, illustrators, and artists. Real people with real taste. And the quality of what they’ve gathered is next level. I recommend you try it, but that’s not the point of this essay. As I meandered through the site, I...
2 months ago • 2 min read